Government keen on ending congestion at Malaba border
James Wakahiu
The governments of Kenya and Uganda have outlined elaborate plans to ease the perennial congestion at the busy Malaba border post.
The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Roads & Transport, Kipchumba Murkomen and his Uganda counterpart Musa Echweru over the weekend led joint government delegations in the inspection of the Malaba Freight Yard at the Kenya Railways transit godown and
customs facilities at the border town of Malaba.
“We held a joint meeting with the government agencies at Malaba border to have fast hand experience of the problems and explore possible solutions to resolve the congestion of trucks along the border point,” Murkomen said.
“Instead of holding conferences and making telephone calls from our offices in Kampala and Nairobi, we decide the come here to learn firsthand what the challenges are that are causing congestion. We at the level of government are determined to provide the solution to these problems. The two countries are committed to engaging all the stakeholders in providing solutions that will promote trade at the borders,” said Uganda’s State Minister of works and transport, Musa Echweru.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the Kenya Railways Inland container depot, CS Murkomen said that the Government is keen on ensuring collegiality between Kenya and Uganda to enhance regional connectivity, enhance efficiency at the border, and boost self-sustainability. Malaba One Stop Border Post is a crossing point in terms of cargo, persons, and services along the Northern Corridor, its efficiency is critical in promoting the bottom-up economy.
“We noted that inadequate holding areas, lack of backup scanners, poor documentation for clearance purposes and unsupportive road network on both Kenyan and Uganda sides as major challenges. Lack of auxiliary roads at the border are also contributing to the occasional pile-up,” Murkomen said.
On the railway side, low turnaround of rolling stock and non-operationalization of the trackage rights framework are major areas of concern. “We thus directed our Transport Permanent/Principal Secretaries from both countries to form a joint committee of technical officers to formulate strategies for resolving issues,” said the CS.
Their meeting follows the recent strike by traders at the border over diversion of empty trucks via Lwakhakha Border, which is located 30km North West of Malaba due to the poor state of the roads. The Uganda government recently ordered empty trucks to exit the country via Lwakaka, but truck drivers say the poor road conditions on both sides and the additional distance was impacting on the cost of the cross border trade. “We plan to invest in more infrastructure at that Lwakaka,” Mukormen said.
Trans-border trade occurs at the Lwakhakha market town, but much of it is informal and goes unrecorded. The town is connected to Kenya’s national electricity grid. The area around Lwakhakha, Kenya has, in the past, served as a base for smugglers and a trailer driver was arrested recently while transporting bhang at the screening entry point.
On the Kenyan side, Murkomen directed the Kenya National Highway (KeNHA) to improve on the 21Km road connecting the Lwakhakha border point to the Eldoret- Malaba highway where clearance of empty trucks can be fast-tracked to ease the congestion at the border.
The ministers agreed to increase on the number of scanners along the route, quicken standard gauge railway construction and above all, expand road network as a way to decongest the border point. CS Murkomen promised more scanning equipment to make the processing of papers faster at the border point. “We have agreed with KRA to increase the scanners,” he added.
Kenya will be exploring the best financing options to construct the 640M Outbound Lane at the Malaba One-Stop Border Post to enable the seamless movement of trucks. To further ease congestion at the border, the two ministers committed to looking into bureaucracies that impede the movement of cargo via the Metre Gauge Railway linking the Port of Mombasa with Kampala and other States along the corridor.
Present were multiagency team of officials from both countries led by the PS Mohamed Daghar of Kenya and PS Bageya Waiswa. Also present were Mr. Mohamed Daghar, PS, and State Department for Transport, Kenya Railways Managing Director Philip Mainga and the senior management. “Kenya Railways Corporation remains steadfast in its commitment to delivering excellent services and playing a pivotal role in transforming transportation across East Africa,” Mainga said.
In February this year, the East African Community announced it had secured $1.4 million from the East African Development Bank to finance a feasibility study on 256km of roads at the border crossing (from Kisumu to Busia and Malaba Butema).
www.themountainjournal.co.ke
